


Daughter of time

by GreenPhoenix



Category: Penny Dreadful (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-23
Updated: 2015-12-23
Packaged: 2018-05-04 00:00:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5312048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GreenPhoenix/pseuds/GreenPhoenix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Vanessa awaits Malcolm's return with trepidation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Daughter of time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [voodoochild](https://archiveofourown.org/users/voodoochild/gifts).



Vanessa Ives waits for sir Malcolm Murray to return to her side as he must soon enough.  
He’s always returned in the past, so she knows he will again by choice.  
If he can, he will, that’s a truth well known.  
She knows he’s gone to see Sembene’s people and face many dangers on the dark continent. She remains in a twilit world, all her companions gone, scattered like leaves in a storm. Vanessa knows she is born to endless night, yet she hopes to see them again. Somehow she must have hope.  
Ethan has gone to America, Victor to his laudanum-fueled dreams, and Dorian to god knows where with Lily. Or is it Brona? She knows they are one and the same, no matter what Victor said. Lily is a clear threat with Dorian beside her, a dangerous and terrible creature, just like Mina became in the end.  
Vanessa thinks of dear Mina, and how she missed her gentle laughter and who she used to be. She thinks of how sad it is that Mina is in the arms of Hades now, much like Persephone of Greek myth. Though unlike Persephone she can never come back to the world she once left behind. It’s how it must be clearly.

She loved Mina, and all her loved ones must clearly go that way it seemed.  
She was never Malcolm’s daughter, not truly and utterly.  
No, she was his own love, dear to his heart and close to his restless dreams.  
They had shared so much in the past, both love and carnal pleasures. The two often were consequences of each other. Vanessa felt it strongly.  
Vanessa knows that it was wrong, but she ached for him and she would not be denied. He could not resist her, and so it was.  
She also knew he held a flame for her and always would, his love was a beacon to her, summoning her when it was needed.  
His brilliant mind and ever-restless spirit made him attractive to her in ways no one else could be. Not even dear Ethan, much as it might pain her to admit it.  
She had her own demons to try and quench, just as Malcolm had his.  
As he longed to do right by Sembene, so did she with Mina. Even if she knew she could not. Her desires so rarely corresponded with the real world in so many ways.  
She was in so many ways Mina’s sister, and it was on her what had become of Mina.  
She longs to see Mina alive, but knows that it can never be again.  
Evelyn’s daughter is still out there and new danger will threaten her world.  
Vanessa longs for Malcolm’s return, and lights another candle in the vast darkness of the lonely house, the lost spirits of the dead haunts it now. Their voices are hardly frightening but they haunt her. Her answering words are meant to be comforting, but they hardly are.  
Vanessa sighs, and wonders if her ghostly companions can hear this. She supposes they can and that makes her feel less alone.  
*

Vanessa recalls how in the past she and Malcolm agreed to be discreet.  
They would have to be, he was married and she a spinster.  
On occasion they went to a seaside resort to indulge in their affair.  
Vanessa knew she couldn’t have him for real, but she didn’t mind.  
Their desires she kept from all, even dear Mina.  
It didn’t go deep at first, but soon she found herself missing him when he went away.  
Even Ethan could not compare to what they had. She thought he could, but now she knows better. She spares a thought for Ethan, hoping he is safe wherever he is.  
The time they had will always be special to her.  
*  
She walks her halls, alone now. The absence of her lover and family haunts her, she is her own worst demon and ghostly dark she is.  
Her love has only brought her misery but she would not trade it for the world.  
It’s what makes her endure the dark ways she must tread now.  
Her candle is bright, its wax searing her skin when it drips.  
The pain reminds her that she still lives, though she feels like a ghost.  
Ghosts can still feel pain, but Vanessa supposes it’s more translucent and ethereal than hers, less alive.  
She talks to the ghosts in this house now and they sometimes answer in riddles.  
They are her only companions in this still silent night.  
Vanessa sighs, and writes another letter to Malcolm that he won’t receive.  
She puts them in a box, like she did with Mina’s. The silent sighs of her words haunt her like the ghosts do.  
Vanessa does not fear them anymore, if she ever did. She is what they should fear if they are wise.

 

  
*

 

  
“Vanessa,” says a gentle voice and she turns slowly to face the man who spoke.  
It is Malcolm in the flesh, looking worn but handsome as ever.  
“I have missed you. So long I’ve wandered in darkness without a word.”  
“Wander no more, my love,” says Malcolm and embraces her longingly.  
Vanessa allows herself to sink into the embrace, to seek the comfort she has so long denied herself.  
“What did you find?” she asks.  
“So much darkness, but also hope. I brought a friend.”  
Vanessa looks up to see Sembene, alive. It’s an undeniable fact.  
“How can this be?” she asks.  
“The wolf bit me,” says Sembene. “I am as he is.”  
“God’s wolf,” says Vanessa. “You are with us.”  
“As always,” says Sembene calmly, though his inner mind must be in sure turmoil.  
“Then all is as it should be,” says Vanessa. She has her family back and can face the darkness.  
“You shall lead us to the light,” says Malcolm and caresses her hand.  
“Yes. We shall find it together,” says Vanessa with surety.  
She knows it won’t be easy, but that they must try.


End file.
